Why new lawyers should be first in line for the OBA's Pro Bono Portal
For a new lawyer, pro bono work through the OBA's Pro Bono Portal may be one of the most valuable professional development opportunities available.
Through the OBA's Pro Bono Portal, volunteer lawyers take on limited-scope matters for real clients who genuinely need their help.
For example, under a new partnership with the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA), those clients can include Toronto, North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke entrepreneurs and small business owners connected through Business Improvement Areas. Think: people launching their first food-service operation, co-founders documenting their ownership arrangement on a handshake, sole proprietors signing their first commercial lease without understanding the personal guarantee they're about to commit to.
These are client files and working through them will teach you valuable and transferable professional skills: how to listen to a client who doesn't know the legal vocabulary for what they need; how to translate a complex document into plain language; how to scope an engagement and manage a client's expectations; how to close a file with a defined deliverable rather than an open-ended retainer.
Client Development Begins Earlier Than You Think
The businesses participating through TABIA and its network of BIAs are real enterprises – e.g., food operations, personal services businesses, retail shops, co-working ventures – run by real people who will remember the lawyer who helped them when they needed it and couldn't afford to pay. The small business owner who received pro bono assistance with their incorporation today may be the same client who calls you about their lease renewal, their first employee, or their shareholder dispute five years from now – and who refers their business-owner neighbour to you before that.
Pro bono clients are not a category of client separate from your future practice. For a significant number of lawyers, they are the beginning of it.
A Growing Network of Opportunities
The TABIA pilot is designed to be a scalable model. As the program matures and expands to BIAs across Ontario – in Burlington, Aldershot, and communities beyond – the volume and variety of pro bono opportunities through the OBA’s Pro Bono portal will grow. Getting involved now means getting in early on a program with momentum, and contributing to something the profession will be proud of.
The OBA Pro Bono Portal is where the work is. The TABIA partnership is where the clients are.
To explore current opportunities, visit the OBA Pro Bono Portal at www.oba.org/probono.